. >> for 26 years lake county juvenile judge mary beth bonaventura has been making tough decisions to get kids like aaron back into track. >> they're coming back into the community. i want to do everything i can do first before i send them to the doc or department of corrections. >> because of aaron's age, his long history with the juvenile system, and the fact that he's still on probation for attempted car theft and battery, the stakes are much higher this time. aaron has already been warned that the prosecutor's office is looking at waiving him to the adult system. >> i've got a bad record. so i'll probably beg please don't let take my life away from me. to me that's taking my life away. that will be three adult felons instead of just one. i have three pending. >> aaron admits he has an unquenchable thirst for taking cars that aren't his own. his other vice, playing escape artist. >> my staff called me to let me know that he was trying to be a trickster and had a detention officer bring him up sunday night for the release for the weekenders. and our intake officer elizabeth noticed

judge mary beth bonaventura will make the decision. >> there's two reasons why you would order a childor to others, or there's an unlikelihood that he'll come back to court for the second hearing. and so if you make a decision that they are a danger you detain them. and if you find they're not a danger, then you release them to the parents. >> brown. >> morning. >> right now i feel like i'm going to go home. like i know my probation officer >>> msnbc now, i'm vinita nair. a rare october snowstorm has has left 3 million without power and declared a state of emergency, urging people to stay off the roads. three deaths have been reported as a result of the storm. and police say more than a dozen occupy denver protesters were arrested saturday after attempting to get inside the capital. police used pepper spray and rubber bullets against the crowd. now back to "lockup." >>> come on out. >> hey, morris, how are you? don ruck. i'll be your lawyer for today. >> 17-year-old morris is locked up for possession of marijuana and, more importantly, for failing to appear at a prior court hearing. be

judge mary beth bonaventura will make the decision. >> there's two reasons why you would order a child whether he's a danger to himself or to others, or there's an unlikelihood that he'll come back to court for the second hearing. and so if you make a decision that they are a danger you detain them. and if you find they're not a danger, then you release them to the parents. >> brown. >> morning. >> right now i feel like i'm going to go home. like i know my probation officer knows how good i've been doing since i've been home from boys' school. so i may go home today. hopefully. >> ready, your honor? right this way. stay to your left, young man. go stand next to your attorney. >> you're all supposed to be helping me. ain't nobody helping me. nobody. [ male announcer ] say goodbye to "ho-hum," and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. >>> msnbc now, i'm vinita nair. a rare october snowstorm has has left 3 million without power a

. >>> if there's one thing senior judge mary beth bonaventura has learned in her 26 years in juvenile, it's that there's never a playbook when parents and kids face off in court. >> you can sentence someone to death. you can sentence someone for life imprisonment. but to try to figure out how to put a family back together in about 30 minutes after you read the report of a certain pattern of behavior that has probably gone on for years is a very tricky thing to do, very important thing to do, and wow, the impact we can have if we get it right. >> kymyada is charged with running away, and although she's told the judge her side of the story, her mother has yet to establish why she turned her daughter over to the police. >> she chose to go and be with her god mother. >> okay. so she didn't leave the house without your permission, did she? >> no, she didn't. because i gave her an option. i said you abide by the rules, or you can go. >> at some time you called the police and reported her as a runaway. >> she didn't call, she didn't check in. she didn't do anything. so the same pattern with

. >>> in 1998, mary beth bonaventura advocated for the building in this courthouse to replace the originalility. her demand, better facilities for kids and families. >> the family support in these hearings or in general with the kids, whether in the hearing or outside the hearing is monumental. i think if there was one single thing i could point to to be able to predict the success or failure of a young person is the family involve management and support. >> sounds like for about four years now the court has been involved not only with his life but obviously your life as well. >> uh-huh. >> and so he's turned 18 now. you're a family that's had a lot of intervention and pretty quickly here there will be none. >> we are there to back him up 100%. i do have a lot of family support. everybody is pulling for him, you know. but he has to pull for himself. >> judge, i'm really torn. everybody is tap dancing around the shooting of devon. that wasn't a stray bullet that entered his arm. that was a purposeful act in response to something devon was doing of a criminal nature, but we also have problem